tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7323692122514281455.post8600233715230799382..comments2024-03-22T17:05:55.267-04:00Comments on MD Whistleblower: Ebola Hysteria in OhioMichael Kirsch, M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/07555280388086931097noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7323692122514281455.post-53219203517217436242014-11-04T14:43:19.897-05:002014-11-04T14:43:19.897-05:00Thank you...thank you....thank you!!! I don't ...Thank you...thank you....thank you!!! I don't think I can say that enough. It is really lovely to see someone writing about this with common sense. Panic serves NO benefit to anyone...such a waste of energy. I am so tired of the hysteria surrounding this whole issue.<br /><br />Ebola is a CONTACT isolation situation. <i>Clostridium difficile</i> should, perhaps, be considered harder to deal with since hand sanitizer isn't sufficient hand hygiene to address it. Healthy folks are less likely to get this so it is far too easy to be complacent...yet it is the most common infection folks get in the hospital...<b>from</b> the hospital and this pathogen has a significant mortality rate in the US for being a preventable illness: Per one source, 6.9% at 30 days and 16.7% at one year. (http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/epidemiology/surveillance/hai/cdiff.htm)<br /><br />Contrast this with our current US ebola stats: 1 person has died in this country of the all of the folks who were treated here. Additionally, of the 75 folks caring for the one guy who died, 2 contracted the illness during a time of "wildly varying protocols" as one media outlet reported it. <br /><br />I don't know about when docs are learning this but nurses are taught how to use PPE at the very start of nursing school. If we have become slack with technique, that is our own fault and we are duty bound as professionals to seek out the knowledge. Watch videos, partner up with peers at work...practice...get good at this. Ebola should be the least of our worries with all of the MDROs currently floating around our hospitals. Hopefully, though, we can use the momentum of the fear generated by ebola to do something positive and start practicing correct infection prevention strategies.<br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com